For the past few years, tens of thousands of entrepreneurs have been flocking to Kickstarter to seek the funding they need to get their ideas off the ground. The crowdfunding site has given these innovators a platform to truly embrace the Lean Startup principles that companies large and small have used to launch breakthrough innovations. By putting the core of the Lean Startup practice to use – including getting cheap, early prototypes in front of real people, gathering feedback, and iterating based on that feedback – these entrepreneurs successfully funded over 22,000 projects in 2014 alone.

The most successful campaigns have shown us that winning also depends on how successfully you can utilize familiar platforms and growing trends, how significantly you can reduce trial costs and pain points, and how concretely you can demonstrate tangible value. We have extracted some of the key innovation lessons that can help companies – regardless of their size – better understand what they can do to increase their chances of success in launching new products and services.